reefnet | (no subject)

It's hard to tell with the water damage. That's also a very relative question, isn't it? I assume you mean 1970s. But 1970 was so long ago for me that this suitcase should have rotted into nothing if it was from then.

[ Though really it shouldn't exist at all but he won't get into that just yet. ]

On this island, when is "now," do you think?

[ This might sound patronising even in text but he does really mean it. He's got two theories he's bouncing around already about this place, but needs more data. ]

Without a better idea of just how much ground we're covering, I'm not sure if it's one big island or several small ones, or even if it attaches to a bigger land mass. But assuming it's an island, southwest.

You didn't tell me your name back btw.

Not specifically a marine biologist, but I am a scientist.

[ When is "now," do you think?

Many possible interpretations of that question run through Lalo's mind at warp speed. Frustratingly, operating over text like denies him the opportunity to interpret the tone of voice of the person or even the sound of the voice he's talking to, that might make it a little bit easier to figure out what's meant by that.

He considers that he's talking to a teenager or college kid who is making fun of him for his age, which frankly, sounds pretty likely if this person apparently thinks the '70s were that long ago. He considers that he might also be talking to someone who is insane.

Or... that he's talking to some kind of physicist who understands things like time warps and worm holes and has devised some theory to explain all of this shit.

He works backwards. He answers the question about his name first, since that's the easiest! ]

Wow, I did, didn't I? That was rude. Officer Ben De Guzman. At your service, Senku.

[ Next the question as to whether it's an island or a peninsula or multiple islands or... ]

Moving inland. Just arrived at the mouth of river. Looks like a bay, maybe a sound of some kind. Not sure. Looks like where I was before was connected to something bigger. Doesn't mean it's all one body of land. Looking like at least some of it might be pretty well-connected, though. Decent-sized!

[ Now the question of "when"...

He settles for a playful approach. He can always lead more into credulous later. He figures his good-guy cop identity should maybe be a little gullible, right? ]

Hate to break it to you but the '70s weren't that long ago, kid. How old are you? 20? :P

[ Really, two of the above are true things in the end. Senku was born in 2004 so to him, sure, the 1970s were awhile ago. But he'd never make that rotting comment if he didn't mean it literally.

He does have an advanced understanding of physics, though things like wormholes and time travel are base theories that no one had proven; he hasn't studied them extensively because there wasn't much to study. But the point of science was always to advance, wasn't it, so he'd read up. Wormholes often came up in relation to space talk, and his number one goal was always to go to space. ]

You're a cop?

[ That means a certain set of skills, he thinks. Too bad they're not anywhere in close proximity. Senku knows he can't survive alone forever, after all. ]

I got stuck at a river too, so either it's a big river or there are multiple ones. Could still be one island with a river system, or several islands that are connected with larger bodies between them that we haven't discovered, but I think I'm leaning towards the one island idea for now.

Yes, about 20, but my age is ten billion percent irrelevant here.
My question was: when do you think NOW is?

I'll ask another way to get the answer I want to know. What year was it just before you came here?

I'll even make this more interesting for you so you don't think I'm screwing around.

[ Not that what he's about to say will probably help, but he's such a straightforward person that it doesn't occur to him that it won't help. ]

I meant what I said before very literally. WHEN I was just before waking up here, there isn't one millimeter of a chance that a suitcase from 1970 could exist. I don't mean it hyperbolically. Nothing made of cloth and plastic could have lasted anymore.

So? What year was it?

Yeah. This thing we're by? It has to be pretty good-sized to accommodate a sound like this. If you're at one mouth, and we're at the other, then we'd know for sure if it's one island or a couple if we meet in the middle. If there's a middle to meet in.

[ In other words: he, too, thinks it's likely there's only one island. He starts with that first because it's the easiest. ]

Doesn't mean there can't be more than one, but a big island looks the most likely. If you ask me. If there's more than one island, then at least one of them can't be too small.

[ It does occur to him that he's not just being mocked, though. Even without being able to hear them, he can tell the person on the other side of the walkie talkie believes what they are saying. This person is serious about this. They mean it.

20 and "a scientist" registers to him as odd, but not as odd as all of this "when" shit. ]

Yeah, I'm a cop. But I was just shitting you, kid. I don't care how old you are. As long as you obey all local age-restricted alcohol laws wherever you're from.

[ Lalo hesitates before he types the next part, unsure if maybe it's a bridge too far for someone who is supposed to be "nice". But it's genuinely the first thing he can think of to say. ]

Hey, don't take this wrong way or anything, but what are you on and where can I get some? Kidding, kidding! Don't actually give me anything. Please.

[ He continues typing. ]

You sure you're okay, though? Didn't hit your head when you washed up here, did you? You said nothing from the '70s could've survived, soooooo. .. What year do YOU think it is?

Edited 2023-05-20 01:15 (UTC)

I wish I had a better idea of the actual scale. It would be a lot easier to get an idea of map and location if we knew that. I can't calculate where we are in the world without more information either. It's frustrating, but a lot of science starts with barely any information. It's only been a few hours. We'll get some answers eventually.

But those are good points. So we'll stick with the only one island theory until we know better.

[ Senku is a very serious person all the time — ten billion percent serious — even when he sounds like a lunatic. He sometimes forgets that other people are like ?!?!?!? in his general direction. Even at home that was true for most of his life. ]

There aren't any laws like that anymore and I don't drink.

[ See, too serious! ]

[ He's just going to roll his eyes and ignore that drug comment. ]

I'm completely fine. You didn't answer my question but extrapolating from what you've said, I would assume you're from somewhere in the early 21st century. You're older than I am based on the comment about me being 20, old enough that you might have lived in the 1970s yourself. I'm assuming you come from before 2019 but I might be colouring that with my own experience. I do know better than to do that but I have to start somewhere.

To answer YOUR question, it's 5749 WHEN I come from. The where isn't entirely relevant at the moment, but we can get to that eventually. I can already guess how you're going to take that, and I am NOT confused, hallucinating, or bullshitting you.

Go ahead, ask whatever you're gonna ask and get it over with.

Occam's Razor, right?

[ About the island. The easy part. If they were speaking over voice, he'd insert a slightly nervous laugh there.

The things Senku is saying are... well, they're are all correct, but they're also obvious statements to throw out, if you're also from 2004 -- like everybody else here, ofc -- and want to convince somebody you're a time traveler. For some reason.

He considers how to react to this. It would be easy to dismiss this person as crazy or a charlatan, and he considers doing just that. He still gets the impression that this person is extremely serious but can't fully get away from how much the way this person lays out how they knew his age and "when" he lived feels like a ploy.

After some thought, he offers one question and two statements. ]

How do I know you're not bullshitting me? Prove it. Prove you're from 5749.

[ Will that even be possible here? Lalo isn't sure. He can't imagine what this person could say that will definitively prove to him that they're from so far in the future. ]

Occam's razor. Exactly.

[ That went better than he expected, but he's also operating only on text here. Oh well. All he can do is answer. ]

Prove to me you're from whenever you're from. You can't, right? How can you do that with letters on a screen? I can't do it any more than you can. You knew that when you asked me though, right?

But the way you answered gave ME some answers. I'll share.

One. You're definitely not from when I am or what I said wouldn't have surprised you. You'd have treated me like some kind of idiot for saying what you already knew to be true. We had already pretty much established that but it was confirming it.

Two. No argument about the 21st century thing which doesn't make me spot on but makes whatever time period you're from far enough away from 5749 that you find what I said totally unbelievable.

If you saw me in person you might have an easier time of this but I wasn't born in 5729 or anything. I was born in 2004. All of humanity was petrified by an unknown event in 2019. It took me 117,354,893,870 seconds to revive. That's 3,700 years and change if you're doing the math. I woke up a few years ago now, but a lot happened since that doesn't matter in the current conversation. Most people from my time have yet to wake up, though my plan has always been to revive everyone. Obviously I've been waylaid by being here.

Before you think you've found a flaw in my story, if you're following along mathwise and you think my age doesn't add up, I'll clear it up for you. We spent another 7 years petrified recently. I do know what caused that to happen, and it was necessary. Again, not relevant to the current convo but I want to give you as much context as I can that provides as much "proof" as I can give you in text alone that you can't come up with some annoying argument for.

We now know what device caused the petrification, though not its origin, not yet. I could show it to you if we weren't however far apart on this island, though the battery is burned out now and without both a very fine craftsman to replace it and that power source itself, I couldn't make it work. But the tech is ten billion percent guaranteed to be unlike anything you've ever seen.

[ He would definitely laugh if this was an out loud conversation, because he has sort of a habit of doing that when he feels awkward or nervous or excited or anything. He just does that. ]

That's a lot of info to dump on you. I'll give you a minute.

And I know what it probably sounds like, but again I'm not crazy or screwing with you. I'm a scientist. I'm only interested in facts.

[ Frankly, it is probably for the best that this is all happening over text. Getting Lalo Salamanca to shut the fuck up long enough to let you monologue this much in real life would be enough of a challenge, even before you contend with getting him to believe all of this.

There is a long, long, long time before Lalo responds. It might seem like he's not going to respond at all, until finally a single sentence pops up. ]

It's 2004. May of 2004.

[ Then another, longer text. ]

Look, I don't want to doubt you. You seem like a very kind and erudite young man. And I believe that you believe everything you're saying to me right now. But you have to think about how this sounds from my perspective. The time I met someone who said they were from the future and something happened to wipe out most of humanity, it was because I was taking them in on a 5150. So. How about this. Show me your... tech... thingy... and if it really is unlike anything I've ever seen, then I will owe you an apology. Sound fair?

[ He's absolutely the monologuing in real life type if he has some science thing to explain, whoops.

He has about given up on getting a response, but then. ]

In May 2004 I wasn't even a year old. But I had guessed you were a little further on than that, so I was off. Not too far off though, huh?

I don't know what a 5150 is but I can guess what it sounds like to you, yeah. If we figure out how to cross this island, I'll show you the Medusa. I don't need an apology or anything like that. I just want you to believe I know what I'm talking about. If you can't trust me, it's a pain in my ass trying to solve the answers that will get us out of here. I can't do it totally alone. Too much island to cover.

[ Notably, this response comes after the one to Shaw.

He's tempted to latch onto that one word — trust — and lose himself in a rage-fueled tangent of torrent of thoughts about how trust is bullshit, how trusting anyone gets your house burned down and anyone you care about killed.

But he doesn't. Can't get distracted. Gotta stay focused.

He has an idea. ]

Actually, there might be something you can do. Might not prove anything but it'll make you more, let's call it, credible. I like to cook. Not professionally. Just a hobby. You said you're a scientist, right? So. Explain the maillard reaction to me. Break it down the way a scientist would. I'll know if you're shitting me. It won't prove you're who you say you are, but if you can't do it, I'll know you're lying about at least one thing.

[ Lying or crazy, but he doesn't say that second part. He doesn't think Senku is lying anyway.

Crazy, though? Probably, although Shaw's response gives him some room for doubt. ]

Maillard reaction, sure, its sugars reacting to amino acids generally between 140-165. That's Celsius, of course. If you're American then figure that conversion out on your own.

[ He could do it, or he could be a brat about it. ]

I'm going to do this out loud since I don't know if the voice to text will get this correct.

[ After a minute, he does switch to voice: ]

This is a little simplified, since there are some other small things that can happen, but...one, formation of N-substituted glycosamine from amino acid group and carbonyl group in the food sugars.
Two, glycosamine becomes ketosamines, which can form different compounds including butanedione or melanoidins.
Generally these are what give brown colour to foods, like the outside of meat or brown crust on bread.

[ This text comes after Martin's comment. ]

The unknown event in 2019. The one that you said "petrified" everyone. What month did that occur?

Edited 2023-05-23 18:34 (UTC)

[ Really, he went to all that trouble, and THIS is what he gets? UGH. ]

It happened on 3 June.

[ But he's also reading the network, so... ]

Do you want my theory on this, or do you just want to dismiss what I'm saying because there are some very conflicting accounts of time going on here?

[ Shockingly, the abrupt question is a good thing! Means he's intent and interested. ]

No, no. Truth be told, I'd like you to hear my theory first. You can tell me if you think I'm right. I trust your judgement, Mr. Scientist.

[ Lalo isn't a scientist the way that Senku is; he doesn't have quite the same depth of understanding of things like chemistry or quantum physics. Truthfully, he only understand the over-simplified text portion of the Maillard reaction, which he knows to be correct; the second half, the voice part, made his eyes briefly glaze over.

But he's bright and sharp and well-educated; he has a layman's understanding of a wide variety of topics.

So he suspects, maybe hopes, they could be coming rapidly to the same conclusion. ]

Edited 2023-05-25 12:11 (UTC)

Just Senku.

But by all means, tell me what you think.

Ok. Don't laugh at me now!!! I'm not going to be able to break it down all the way like you. But you've heard of parallel universes. Right? Different timelines, alternate dimensions, blah blah blah. All that! I think we're dealing with that right now. Was that your theory too, Senku?

Multiverse theory. A branch of quantum physics that even quantum physicists often think is bs. But considering where we are now, I'd say we've all but proven this theory true.

But you're right. That was more or less what I was going to say. Ten billion points to you.

[ YAY!!!! TEN BILLION POINTS!!! HE'S SO HAPPY!!! ]

It's my lucky day! What can I buy with ten billion points?

[ Because Lalo is both a deranged maniac and an eternal optimist, the shock and "what the fuck" feeling that had permeated him earlier is wearing off quickly; in its place, possibilities emerge. Endless possibilities.

Gotta get off the island first though. ]

Edited 2023-05-25 14:07 (UTC)

[ That's just his standard number when he bothers giving points anyway! But you know. He still gave points. ]

Not a hell of a lot right now, looks like.
But this place just got pretty exciting.

[ Someone has his priorities all screwed up. ]

"Exciting" is certainly one word for it.

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hyakuoku - 2023-05-26 19:48 (UTC) - Expand

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salamanca - 2023-05-26 20:26 (UTC) - Expand

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hyakuoku - 2023-05-27 07:05 (UTC) - Expand

December 2015.

[what the fuuuuuuuck]

[ ...you're kidding, right? You don't seem insane, lady, so like... you are kidding, right? ]

Haha. Very funny.

Completely serious.

Oct 2019 for me.

[The last time there had been time. Martin had expected, if they were jumping to some sort of other universe, that the year might be different, but this is... on another level. This seems like whatever they did just broke... multiple universes and jumbled a bunch of people together all at once.

Bloody hell.]

[ Lalo's thoughts now echo Shaw's: what the fuuuuuuck. ]

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wow i'm so sorry for all of this text

nooooo don't be sorry! <3 <3 <3

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not me having to google the actual chemical steps lmao

lol i've had to google so many crazy things for rp, i feel your pain <3

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TO994M; text

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LO431Y; text - threadjacking

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